soul link togetter with the new 10% of your spells (some of them) add a shield is quite nice, since you use your schield and your pet's schield. especialy on fights like council (or as seen in the method video @ra-den, if i ever get to see that sucker ^^)

yet for most fights i use op, simply since around 600k absorb for like nothing/not having to look what my pet does/25% of my hp if i play without is pretty usefull most of the time

Just like Death Knight AoE Grip is nothing spectacular on its own but is Overpowered when combined with Druid mass Root and Mass Silence and had to be nerfed, Also Soul Link does not seem overly strong at first there but if you do Arena with a Resto druid who hots you and your Demon you can achieve great results.

Soul Link reduces the demon's HP by 50%. So your Fel Hunter will be running around with 150k life. Imagine DK dots on that AND on your warlock. He was already dying in seconds, now he'll die in less.

Soul Link reduces the demon's HP by 50%. So your Fel Hunter will be running around with 150k life. Imagine DK dots on that AND on your warlock. He was already dying in seconds, now he'll die in less.

Soul Link is not for pvp.

If you have 500k, and your Fel Hunter had 300k, and you use soul link, your Fel Hunter goes to 150k, but, in terms of damage needed to kill it, need to take 650k damage in order to die.

It was nerfed in 5.1 if i remember, because before that, Soul Link didnt reduce your demon's health, causing you, and your pet, to have to take 800k health in damage before dieing. Certainly, DoT-type classes could dot both you and your pet, but HoT-type healers could HoT both you and your pet.

But yea, what Soul Link does, in a PvP enviroment, is A) cause enemies to have to deal an extra 30% of your health in damage in order to kill you, B) cause enemies to have to deal an extra 150% of your pet's health in damage to kill it, C) causes both DoT and HoT effects to double dip if applied to warlock and pet, D) causes self and pet to die at same time, and finally, E) functions as a 30% health heal if you dismiss-summon new pet.

Anyone ever notice how the sun seems to shine silverish now? Didn't it used to shine goldish? PM me if you've noticed this.

What soul link does on pvp => You receive double cleave from melees (that 30% more hp is not so atractive now, is it? :P). It takes a slot of one of those "Oh shit, my healer got CC'd and all I got is a pet to be dot'd/cleaved and pray for good". You constantly get messed up because of dumb A.I. mechanics that don't have a escape mechanism (unless you use imp or disable soul link) and your pet gets ganked/stuned to death (kinda like when in 3's they switch to you heavily bursty and you have to port. Your pet can't teleport with you if they choose them to stun/gank). Needless to say, it's worse on 5's.

The above stated by Raugnaut is true. But it's not nearly as usefull as Dark bargain or Sacrificial Pact is for PVP.

Soul Link is almost a must have for soloing stuff and also very useful in some raiding situation ( like Twin Consorts Heroic)
However must point out that Dark Bargain is also a god like talent and is more useful in certain fights where you would like to bypass mechancics or where the shield from SacPact would just break in seconds.

sacrificial pact is just too good. its far superior to soul link during things like lightning storm, dire call and rampage because you can prepare for it.

Sac pact is really good too, and the fight will dictate where to use it. However.. dire call? All of that is fully absorbed by your Soul Leech. I usually run soul link, except on fights like Ji-kun because Sac Pact is really good for Quills, for example. Soul link is unmistakably superior to sac pact for lightning storm, in my opinion. Basically, any constant damage like Storm you will want Soul Link. Fights with frequent moments like Quills, that Soul Leech will not take care of, will favor Sac Pact.

Dark Bargain can be good on certain fights, as mentioned, Lei Shen. I tend to take it for Jinrokh too, but I'm an oddball there. I prefer to Sac my imp for dispel instead, take burning rush so I don't feel permanently dazed in Storm, and soul link sacrificed is not as good. It just makes you more spongey, so I usually take Dark bargain, as well as Dark Regen with glyphed healthstone and mortal coil if I don't forget it. This is mainly because I'm doing 25 now and I haven't upgraded my pc yet, so those oshit buttons have saved my ass a few times already when my fps decides to drop (or when I decide to be a retard).

sacrificial pact is just too good. its far superior to soul link during things like lightning storm, dire call and rampage because you can prepare for it.

Far superior if that damage is 1 minute apart from each other. Any time you are taking spike dmg more frequently than 60 seconds, Soul link will trump Sac Pact. Not only do you get to split incoming dmg and double dip on heals, but you also get to double dip on your soul leech absorbs.

I can't seem to figure out what purpose this talent has in PvE. I think it is a complete waste of a good talent point and I see no reason having it unless you spec Grimoire: Sacrifice.

Am I wrong or is there anything else to it?

This sounds ruder than I mean it to: My dear sir (or madam), you're completely wrong in this regard. Soul Link wins for:
--Sustained damage lasting >8 seconds (more often than every 3 minutes). You're left with Dark Bargain's DoT plus sustained damage. That gets ugly.
--Spike damage more often than every 90 seconds. If the spikes come less frequently, pick Dark Bargain and use it for every other spike.

Originally Posted by Glurp

I was under the impression that if a Warlock was using Soul Link with a pet out then you just global the 100k health pet and the Warlock instant dies.

This is the complete opposite of reality.

The reality is, suppose the pet has 100k health and you hit for 100k. It's reduced 60%, so that becomes 40k split two ways -- just 20k each. To actually *kill* the 100k health pet, you'd need to do 200k/.4 = 500k damage. Notably, pets have closer to 150k with Soul Link, making the requirement 750k. If you do 750k to a player in one GCD, by yourself, you're going to win anyway.

...yet 750k still won't global the Warlock. You've got the Warlock down to about 200k health...say, 150-300k health depending on timing and the Warlock's gear. If you actually want the Warlock to die in one GCD, you need to burn the rest, which means doing another 300k in the next GCD -- more unless the Warlock has neither the secondary resources to ressurect the pet, nor any damage reduction cooldowns left.

Also keep in mind that the damage you take from your pet's link is shadow damage so twilight ward will absorb it. With that said, a 250k - 600k absorb on a 1 minute CD is still superior on nearly every fight imo.